vicarious

I have talked to so many American Express cardmembers who tell me about places they've been, places they live. Sometimes I think I should have been a historian of people's lives, because there are few things as rich as the personal experiences of people. Here are some  things I've learned from talking to cardmemebers at American Express:

• The food in Las Vegas is excellent. Not just the buffets, but food in the restaurants in the city. They have seafood buffets in Las Vegas; I had no idea. The best time to visit is late September and early October, when the weather is mild.
• There's a golf course by Lake Mead (by the Hoover Dam) and people will live there in campers all winter enjoying the cooler weather and playing golf.
• Different regions of Italy specialize in different foods, like cheese, mushrooms, and wine. (Mushrooms, right?) So you really do have to go all over Italy to get a true "taste of Italy."
• The weather in Hawaii is just perfect all the time. I have not yet talked to someone in Hawaii who said, "Yeah, it was just cloudy and horrible all through last week and today."
• A woman my age from Pennsylvania moved to South Carolina to escape the weather. She and I agreed that PA and OH are good places to grow up, but they're black holes; if you don't get out, you never will. Apparently the feeling about that region of the USA is mutual throughout. (I think that people either stay in Ohio/Pennsylvania/New York because they're good places to settle down and raise a family, or they leave because they don't like the weather and want to spend some time exploring the world.)
• Also, I now have a second person telling me I have to go to a place called Sheetz, a food joint in Pittsburgh.
• Musicthatisntbad.org. Visit it.

There are many other things, but I forget them now. I try to write down as much as I can. People are like living books. They are founts of endless knowledge and insight. They are living biographies, an embodiment of collected experiences. Find a random person and ask them about what they're doing right now; what they've accomplished, what they've recently discovered, where they've been, where they live.

Every person has something to teach everyone else.

I want to be like the 50-year-old man I talked to last month who, upon retirement, has taken up cooking, joined an online recipe website, and is using Youtube to learn new cooking techniques. He marveled at the changes in technology in his lifetime, but he was jumping into the 21st Century head first. Things may change, but you're never too old to learn!

I want to be like the 60-year-old man calling to activate his card, who did so while watching the river wash away all his hard work mulching his backyard. He said to me, "It's the circle of life." When the rain dried up and the river went down, he said, he'd go out and put it all back to rights. He didn't sound the least bit upset. You can spend your day upset about the things you can't change, or you can take it with a grain of salt and go get something else done.

I want to be like the 80-year-old man retired in Hawaii who said, when I asked if I could put him on hold while I called Delta about something, "Sure. I'll just go out back and sit in the sun with my beer." One person's wasted time "on hold" with Customer Service is another person's free time to enjoy the Hawaii sun and a cold drink. :)